The Philadelphia 76ers held practice on Wednesday, but were without the presence of star guard James Harden, who is reportedly in Houston as he continues to push for the Sixers to trade him. The problem, as its been all summer, is that the Clippers are the only team interested in Harden and they aren’t interested enough to bid against themselves by offering what Philly wants — either in the form of multiple picks or Terance Mann.
While Harden skipped media day he did report to camp in Colorado and, at least initially, seemed like he would be playing nice amid his trade request, recognizing the need to build his value by being available. However, with reports indicating talks have once again stalled, Harden seems to have decided to return to the “make things uncomfortable” playbook, skipping out on practice.
Head coach Nick Nurse, who Harden heaped praise on in his initial comments to the media from Sixers camp, admitted he was surprised by James’ absence but said all the team can do is move forward and continue preparing as they normally would, with or without him.
Nick Nurse on the James Harden situation, adding that he’s still looking for him to play Friday: pic.twitter.com/MOTDg2A6gB
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) October 18, 2023
Joel Embiid, who is a veteran of these sorts of co-star distractions, shrugged it off as only he can, noting that maybe Harden just had something he needed to do.
Joel Embiid, who goes on to say team had a good practice, on James Harden’s absence: “Maybe he had something to do” pic.twitter.com/FelUC0oqpf
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 18, 2023
That really is the only way to handle it for Embiid, who I’m sure is a bit frustrated to be dealing with this type of situation for the second time in three years, but also knows there’s nothing he can really do about it and the better job he does deflecting the less he’ll have to talk about it.